Comments on: Jill Biden: Not Educated on School Vouchers

By: Mandos

Mandos — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:02:24 +0000

But Carney has highlighted a potential *benefit* of voucher programs that I didn’t quite realize: undoing the effects of “white flight” and resegregation.

By: Mandos

Mandos — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:58:40 +0000

It’s very difficult to show that students in failing schools are genetically inferior than students in better schools, when there’s a much stronger association with systemic economic failure and urban blight drowning out all other variables.

By: Carney

Carney — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:24:32 +0000

JeninCT said, “Life isn’t fair.”

That is not a justification for enacting a public policy in knowledge that it will create a new unfairness that had not existed before.

“In my opinion, kids will rise to whatever expectation we have of them.”

Silly nonsense. Much of the current public school system operates on this fallacy. “No Child Left Behind”, the religious emphasis on self-esteem, etc.

But the most important reality in life as well as in school is inequality – permanent, ingrained, unfixable, genetic inequality. Some people are just smarter, faster, stronger, healthier, more motivated, and so forth than others. This will never change. In fact, most people are not college material, and some do not deserve even a meaningful high school degree. Telling random children that they can be astronauts, lawyers, or president is cruel nonsense, like telling wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy sufferers that they have a future in the NBA.

By: Mandos

Mandos — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:32:29 +0000

The students are often quite intelligent in realizing that much of their educational effort will be wasted by society.

By: JeninCT

JeninCT — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:38:50 +0000

“How fair is it to these parents, then, to unleash hordes of school-wrecking slum denizens on their local schools, even the private schools?”

Life isn’t fair. In my opinion, kids will rise to whatever expectation we have of them.

By: Carney

Carney — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:52:49 +0000

The problem with vouchers is that parents sacrifice greatly to keep their kids AWAY from the students in question. Unlike generations ago, which could affordably raise children in urban environments and send them confidently to the public schools of Detroit, New York, etc. (when there were no vouchers either, I strongly note), today’s parents are desperate to escape the violence, ignorance, chaos, and systemic failure of the schools, caused in large part not just by the (conventional conservative whipping boys of the) bureaucracy and unions, but by the STUDENTS. Low-IQ, high testosterone, utterly incorrigible students.

To escape this extremely destructive element, the parents have to get to the suburbs, the more distant over time as inner suburbs (PG County) decay, and take out huge mortgages and become anxiety ridden slaves to their own homes. (Which causes them to be quiet victims of PC, since they cannot utter a peep lest they lose their jobs and thus their expensive homes). They have to engage in lengthy commutes that are fatiguing and eat enormous portions of their days and lifespans, taking away time with their families or personal interests. Desirable public school districts are extremely expensive to live near, and private school is even more backbreaking.

How fair is it to these parents, then, to unleash hordes of school-wrecking slum denizens on their local schools, even the private schools?

By: Arch

Arch — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:50:55 +0000

Hey, has Katie Couric ever asked her or her husband what periodicals they read?

I bet she could answer the question, at least.

By: balconesfault

balconesfault — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:31:27 +0000

Hey, has Katie Couric ever asked her or her husband what periodicals they read?

So is the question here whether Jill Biden is qualified to be President of the United States?

Personally, I’d vote no.

By: JeninCT

JeninCT — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:55:32 +0000

I admire her honestly, but you can’t swing a dead cat without reading a story about vouchers and how they were ripped out of the hands of some of DC’s best and brightest.

Hey, has Katie Couric ever asked her or her husband what periodicals they read?

By: Arch

Arch — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:38:24 +0000

Hardly seems sporting to go after her about not yet knowing much about this. I’m sure it’s been a busy year settling in a new city, stepping into a new and much more public role.